Despite my fears, land finally graces us after a day of flight. We land on the ledge of a tall cliff overlooking the gulf. Without wasting time, my flames burn through the surrounding flora, regaining my energy. The journey was long, but nowhere near what I’d been dreading, so I could still keep going for a while longer, but there’s no reason to refuse food when it’s available.
The landscape isn’t anything like what I remember when Henosis dragged me to this side of New Vetus. Fewer beaches and more rocky overlooks. The isthmus should be south from here… somewhere, but I couldn’t say how far.
“Do you know where to go from here?” I ask Leal.
Her arms raise above her head as she stretches. “Depending on where we are, it shouldn’t actually be that far from here. Maybe a couple hours with how fast you move.”
“Huh.” I’d half expected to need to cross to the far south. Well, I’m not complaining. “Then we best get moving.”
“Huh? Aren’t you tired?”
“A little, but I got enough energy to keep going.”
“Oh… well, I’m exhausted. Let’s keep moving in the morning.”
I nod in agreement. So long have I spent around my team and others with greater enhancement, that I forgot how little sleep they have compared to most people. Even I have slept nowhere near as much as I used to. Though, that’s not just because of the energy I’ve taken on, but the excessive fuel available to me away from the wasteland.
Back with my tribe, even the strongest of elders slept to conserve energy. With enough food to burn through, any áed can stay awake indefinitely. Mental strain might grow the longer the mind goes without rest, but it is possible.
My body returns to its default form, and I relish in the heat that comes with it. It’s only been a day or so, but I missed this feeling. The slight temptation I had to keep my body larger than an ursu is immediately wiped away by the comfort of my white flames.
“You know, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to you doing that.”
Leal is already laying on the one unblemished patch of grass surrounded by a ring of burnt earth.
“What? My transformation?” I have nothing better to do, so I lay beside her.
“It goes against what I thought I understood about áed. Your bodies are distinctly solid. touchable, unlike the fire you wield. They exhibit attributes of fire, but are separate from the element. More lifelike and defined.” Her eyes inspect my body, now controlled and not giving off light. “But it’s like you’ve lost that definition. From the perspective of the senses I’ve trained in the past years, it is far more difficult to tell you apart from your inner flame.”
I’m surprised she can notice the connection. My binding has already far surpassed Elder Enya. The intimacy at which fire moves with me is not something I could have imagined back with my tribe. It has always felt like fire is my very being, but it wasn’t until my binding skyrocketed to its current level that I realised how shallow that feeling had been.
I want to learn how I can keep pushing that connection. How close can I truly become to my fire?
“Solvei, your loss of definition scares me.” Leal chews on her lip with concern before continuing. “As you become closer to your fire, your connection to the form consistent with all life disappears. What if you do not keep your mind? As you become less áed and more fire, will you retain who you are? If you push past the point of retaining your definition of life, will you cease to be?”
I simply stare at the ursu for a long moment, trying to process her words. “I think… you are tired. There’s no way I could lose who I am by becoming more,” I say. “I’ve felt no less myself after the Void Fog, so there’s no reason to believe I will by going forward.”
“If you’re sure,” Leal says. “Night.” She turns away from me and leans her head down on her bundled coat.
I follow suit and drop my head, trying to sleep despite the lack of genuine need.
A minute passes. Two. Five. Soon, an hour is gone and I still can’t nod off.
Damn. Her words got to me.
I know it’s a completely nonsense theory of a tired mage, but that tiny, lingering ‘what if’ is enough to worry me. It hardly even makes sense. I am fire. I can’t lose myself by becoming closer with what I am.
Eh, whatever. It’s probably better I stay up and watch over things. Don’t want some random stranger to sneak up on us while we sleep, or a sudden shower to drown us, or Hund to crush us. That’s honestly my biggest concern. Not whoever they tasked as a warden amid war.
If Hund were to be sent after us once we break Leal’s dad out, I’m sure there’s nothing we could do. I’ll sit on the logic that it would never make sense for the ursu to send Hund after us while they are trying to push into the pact nations. What is a single mage and her father in the grand scheme of things?
The warden might be hard to deal with, but for the same reason New Vetus wouldn’t keep Hund away from the war, they wouldn’t keep one of their more skilled elite this far back home. Sure, he might reach the lowest equivalent of a Beith, but any more doesn’t seem reasonable.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to get there and save Gerben before they have the chance to even realise something is wrong.
The gulag is a dreadfully gloomy looking place. The ursu’s incredible stone masonry is wasted on this place. A massive complex with towering walls of unmarred grey stone sits alone on a lifeless plateau. The lone steel gate is the only visible entrance to the compound, neighboured by a small administration building at its side.
Watchtowers nestled on the ramparts hold ursu guards. Most watch over the inner grounds, but there are a few peering over the sparse land around the prison. I could approach with my mermineae fur outfit, but there is no way for Leal to come with me and remain unseen.
Leal and I hide behind an outcrop overlooking the plateau. There is no cover between us and the gulag we could use to hide our approach. Once we move, we’ll be in clear sight of those watchtowers.
“Do you know where they are keeping your dad?” I ask.
“No. They brought him to the visitor rooms when I was allowed in,” Leal says, poking her head over a rock to inspect our target.
It really would have been better if we’d had the time to have a mermineae coat made for Leal as well, but for now it looks like I should move ahead myself.
“Alright, I’ll go sneak in. See if I can find Gerben.” I pull the cord within the neck of my outfit and the mermineae fur pulls into place, camouflaging all but the few tears on my torso. “You should stay here for now.”
“No, I need to get in there. It’s my father. I can’t stay while you risk yourself.” Her eyes finally fall on my concealed form. “Ah. Now that’s unfair.”
“You don’t need to worry about me,” I say. “I’ll find your dad and get him out. If I can’t do it myself, I’ll come back and we can figure out another plan.”
Leal is clearly not happy about my proposition. “How will you even get in? You can’t fly over the walls, they’ll see you.”
“Simple. I’ll melt a hole through the stone.”
Leal just stares at me, or at least what she can see of me. “Right,” she drawls. “Of course you can.” She sighs before locking eyes. “Solvei, if you get into any trouble, signal for me and I’ll be over the wall in a second.”
I nod, pull up my hood, and scamper out onto the plateau. The fur works much better when the body is closer to the ground, so I stay crouched as run toward the wall on the opposite side of the entrance gate. I could probably mimic a mermineae’s body and allow myself to rush along with my belly against the ground, but then my body wouldn’t fit my outfit all too well. Not to mention I’d give off light by changing my body from default.
I still haven’t hidden my flames on anything but my normal form, even after passing the barrier that had been holding me back. I’ve been working on my control almost non-stop, but it’s just not as easy to improve the manipulation of my form in a short time compared to compressing my fire or taking on energy from my fallen foes.
A guard in the closest tower turns my way and my body freezes. The ursu haven’t fought against the mermineae long, so I can only hope any method they might have devised to find the creatures hasn’t passed this far back within their country.
His eyes linger on my area for far too long for comfort before sliding further along the landscape behind me. I don’t move yet, in case he sees any movement. The ursu holds a gun slung over his shoulder. The weapon is fatter than any other I’ve seen, looking more like a miniaturised cannon than a normal rifle.
I’ve never seen the ursu using this sort of weapon. Even on the battlefield I just came from, they only used swords. I guess after the war with Henosis, the effectiveness of the weapon was pounded into the ursu. Are those not trained with the sword given guns now instead? How much more damage could that mini-cannon do compared to the rifles used by other armies?
The guard’s gaze turns away enough that I can continue my approach without obstacle. Upon reaching the wall, I move along it, trying to find a place that a casual inspection won’t notice.
After a few minutes of search, I have to settle with a fairly visible part of the wall. There is no secluded space. The best place I figure to melt through the wall would be right below a watchtower. It’s out of sight of the other towers, and the ursu above will have to look directly down to see it. Only issue is if any guards patrol the exterior, there’s no chance they will miss it.
My white flame burns into the wall and in no time at all, it melts into a viscous puddle at my feet. I climb through and find myself in a storage room of tables, chairs and other rather unimportant goods. Of course, most are made of wood, so I need to put out the fire that started from the molten stone dripping into the room. Thankfully, this seems to be the basement level, so the lava doesn’t drip into some lower room.
Dust swathes all. Likely, nobody has been through here in years. Good, it means I’ll have nobody noticing the hole through the thick wall of stone from the inside.
It might have been a risk to just rush in like this without knowing what was on the other side, but I had no other plan. If I set off the alarm immediately, it would make my job much harder, but I still believe I can get Gerben out regardless of the attention on my head. As long as I can find him first.
That’s really where this might become difficult. This compound is huge. How will I find a single prisoner amongst thousands? As much as I know Leal wanted to come as well, she wouldn’t be able to wander around freely, anyway.
I make sure my outfit still hides me well enough and push against the typical heavy door. Locked. Fortunately, a tiny lick of flame into the keyhole destroys the lock, and I push into a wide, deserted hallway. Echoes of conversation come from my right, so I move in the opposite direction.
Soon, my path is blocked by another large door. Like the last, the mechanism inside the lock melts away and I squeeze through without opening it too far. I’m back outside, this time within the large walls.
An extensive structure sits in the central point between the stone walls. The dull, grey building lacks the usual features of normal ursu construction. No architectural uniqueness. No decorations. Just a simple — yet large — stone building with thin slit windows.
A wire fence circles the inside of the compound, separating the structure in the centre from the tall walls to the outside. I’ve seen an ursu’s strength. There’s no way the guards expect that small fence to hold them in, so what’s the point? There’s already a major wall to lock them in.
I go to move toward the obvious place where I’ll find a prisoner, but paste myself against the wall beside the door as a pair of footsteps come my way. A duo of ursu guards, each holding one of those enlarged guns, turn the corner and walk directly for the door I just came from.
I don’t dare to move as they walk within a few metres of me. Neither have noticed yet, but it will only take them observing the slight distortion on the stone to realise I’m here.
Wait… why do I feel anxious? Even if they find out I’m here, I could kill these two before they have the time to tell anyone else. Their weapons would do nothing to me. Well, except damage my outfit, which would be incredibly annoying more than anything.
One of them grabs at the handle and it immediately snaps off. Whoops, probably burnt a bit too much of the lock.
“The fuck?” the first stares down at the handle in his hand.
His partner groans. “Just put it back on and let the next person deal with it. My tongue is dry and I’m not wasting my time here.”
The first wedges the handle back in place — though at an odd angle — and follows his partner into the building protruding from the outer wall.
Huh, that is convenient. They don’t even question when a door is broken. Could I break my way inside the main prison and have the guards think they broke each door along the way? Doubtful. It’s clear no prisoners come near the wall.
There are too many eyes watching the wire fence, so I lower to the ground and crawl forward. If it works for the mermineae, it can work for me. Only it cuts my speed instead of increasing it as it does for them.
By the time I reach the wire fence, I can finally get a look at the treatment of the prisoners here. The first thing I notice is the absolute emaciation of the ursu here. They don’t have anywhere near the normal muscle mass. I can even see the necks of some instead of the usual mass of flesh and fur which make their shoulders.
Many have old, torn and blood-soaked clothes with accompanying wounds. The crack of a whip, not unlike that of Remus’ dangerous attacks, resounds through the muted compound followed only by pained shrieks. The silence itself is strange considering the number of ursu around.
I trace the source of the whip and find a row of ursu kneeling with bowed heads as a guard lashes them one at a time. A crowd stands uniformly, watching as the guard walks up and back, striking at each of the bleeding people cowering in the dirt.
The temptation to just burn everything to the ground grabs hold of me and won’t let go. Some things just deserve to be incinerated. But I have to hold myself back, for now. My priority is Gerben. Once I get him and Leal safe, I’ll come back.
I’m glad Leal can’t see this.
Despite my fears, land finally graces us after a day of flight. We land on the ledge of a tall cliff overlooking the gulf. Without wasting time, my flames burn through the surrounding flora, regaining my energy. The journey was long, but nowhere near what I’d been dreading, so I could still keep going for a while longer, but there’s no reason to refuse food when it’s available.
The landscape isn’t anything like what I remember when Henosis dragged me to this side of New Vetus. Fewer beaches and more rocky overlooks. The isthmus should be south from here… somewhere, but I couldn’t say how far.
“Do you know where to go from here?” I ask Leal.
Her arms raise above her head as she stretches. “Depending on where we are, it shouldn’t actually be that far from here. Maybe a couple hours with how fast you move.”
“Huh.” I’d half expected to need to cross to the far south. Well, I’m not complaining. “Then we best get moving.”
“Huh? Aren’t you tired?”
“A little, but I got enough energy to keep going.”
“Oh… well, I’m exhausted. Let’s keep moving in the morning.”
I nod in agreement. So long have I spent around my team and others with greater enhancement, that I forgot how little sleep they have compared to most people. Even I have slept nowhere near as much as I used to. Though, that’s not just because of the energy I’ve taken on, but the excessive fuel available to me away from the wasteland.
Back with my tribe, even the strongest of elders slept to conserve energy. With enough food to burn through, any áed can stay awake indefinitely. Mental strain might grow the longer the mind goes without rest, but it is possible.
My body returns to its default form, and I relish in the heat that comes with it. It’s only been a day or so, but I missed this feeling. The slight temptation I had to keep my body larger than an ursu is immediately wiped away by the comfort of my white flames.
“You know, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to you doing that.”
Leal is already laying on the one unblemished patch of grass surrounded by a ring of burnt earth.
“What? My transformation?” I have nothing better to do, so I lay beside her.
“It goes against what I thought I understood about áed. Your bodies are distinctly solid. touchable, unlike the fire you wield. They exhibit attributes of fire, but are separate from the element. More lifelike and defined.” Her eyes inspect my body, now controlled and not giving off light. “But it’s like you’ve lost that definition. From the perspective of the senses I’ve trained in the past years, it is far more difficult to tell you apart from your inner flame.”
I’m surprised she can notice the connection. My binding has already far surpassed Elder Enya. The intimacy at which fire moves with me is not something I could have imagined back with my tribe. It has always felt like fire is my very being, but it wasn’t until my binding skyrocketed to its current level that I realised how shallow that feeling had been.
I want to learn how I can keep pushing that connection. How close can I truly become to my fire?
“Solvei, your loss of definition scares me.” Leal chews on her lip with concern before continuing. “As you become closer to your fire, your connection to the form consistent with all life disappears. What if you do not keep your mind? As you become less áed and more fire, will you retain who you are? If you push past the point of retaining your definition of life, will you cease to be?”
I simply stare at the ursu for a long moment, trying to process her words. “I think… you are tired. There’s no way I could lose who I am by becoming more,” I say. “I’ve felt no less myself after the Void Fog, so there’s no reason to believe I will by going forward.”
“If you’re sure,” Leal says. “Night.” She turns away from me and leans her head down on her bundled coat.
I follow suit and drop my head, trying to sleep despite the lack of genuine need.
A minute passes. Two. Five. Soon, an hour is gone and I still can’t nod off.
Damn. Her words got to me.
I know it’s a completely nonsense theory of a tired mage, but that tiny, lingering ‘what if’ is enough to worry me. It hardly even makes sense. I am fire. I can’t lose myself by becoming closer with what I am.
Eh, whatever. It’s probably better I stay up and watch over things. Don’t want some random stranger to sneak up on us while we sleep, or a sudden shower to drown us, or Hund to crush us. That’s honestly my biggest concern. Not whoever they tasked as a warden amid war.
If Hund were to be sent after us once we break Leal’s dad out, I’m sure there’s nothing we could do. I’ll sit on the logic that it would never make sense for the ursu to send Hund after us while they are trying to push into the pact nations. What is a single mage and her father in the grand scheme of things?
The warden might be hard to deal with, but for the same reason New Vetus wouldn’t keep Hund away from the war, they wouldn’t keep one of their more skilled elite this far back home. Sure, he might reach the lowest equivalent of a Beith, but any more doesn’t seem reasonable.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to get there and save Gerben before they have the chance to even realise something is wrong.
The gulag is a dreadfully gloomy looking place. The ursu’s incredible stone masonry is wasted on this place. A massive complex with towering walls of unmarred grey stone sits alone on a lifeless plateau. The lone steel gate is the only visible entrance to the compound, neighboured by a small administration building at its side.
Watchtowers nestled on the ramparts hold ursu guards. Most watch over the inner grounds, but there are a few peering over the sparse land around the prison. I could approach with my mermineae fur outfit, but there is no way for Leal to come with me and remain unseen.
Leal and I hide behind an outcrop overlooking the plateau. There is no cover between us and the gulag we could use to hide our approach. Once we move, we’ll be in clear sight of those watchtowers.
“Do you know where they are keeping your dad?” I ask.
“No. They brought him to the visitor rooms when I was allowed in,” Leal says, poking her head over a rock to inspect our target.
It really would have been better if we’d had the time to have a mermineae coat made for Leal as well, but for now it looks like I should move ahead myself.
“Alright, I’ll go sneak in. See if I can find Gerben.” I pull the cord within the neck of my outfit and the mermineae fur pulls into place, camouflaging all but the few tears on my torso. “You should stay here for now.”
“No, I need to get in there. It’s my father. I can’t stay while you risk yourself.” Her eyes finally fall on my concealed form. “Ah. Now that’s unfair.”
“You don’t need to worry about me,” I say. “I’ll find your dad and get him out. If I can’t do it myself, I’ll come back and we can figure out another plan.”
Leal is clearly not happy about my proposition. “How will you even get in? You can’t fly over the walls, they’ll see you.”
“Simple. I’ll melt a hole through the stone.”
Leal just stares at me, or at least what she can see of me. “Right,” she drawls. “Of course you can.” She sighs before locking eyes. “Solvei, if you get into any trouble, signal for me and I’ll be over the wall in a second.”
I nod, pull up my hood, and scamper out onto the plateau. The fur works much better when the body is closer to the ground, so I stay crouched as run toward the wall on the opposite side of the entrance gate. I could probably mimic a mermineae’s body and allow myself to rush along with my belly against the ground, but then my body wouldn’t fit my outfit all too well. Not to mention I’d give off light by changing my body from default.
I still haven’t hidden my flames on anything but my normal form, even after passing the barrier that had been holding me back. I’ve been working on my control almost non-stop, but it’s just not as easy to improve the manipulation of my form in a short time compared to compressing my fire or taking on energy from my fallen foes.
A guard in the closest tower turns my way and my body freezes. The ursu haven’t fought against the mermineae long, so I can only hope any method they might have devised to find the creatures hasn’t passed this far back within their country.
His eyes linger on my area for far too long for comfort before sliding further along the landscape behind me. I don’t move yet, in case he sees any movement. The ursu holds a gun slung over his shoulder. The weapon is fatter than any other I’ve seen, looking more like a miniaturised cannon than a normal rifle.
I’ve never seen the ursu using this sort of weapon. Even on the battlefield I just came from, they only used swords. I guess after the war with Henosis, the effectiveness of the weapon was pounded into the ursu. Are those not trained with the sword given guns now instead? How much more damage could that mini-cannon do compared to the rifles used by other armies?
The guard’s gaze turns away enough that I can continue my approach without obstacle. Upon reaching the wall, I move along it, trying to find a place that a casual inspection won’t notice.
After a few minutes of search, I have to settle with a fairly visible part of the wall. There is no secluded space. The best place I figure to melt through the wall would be right below a watchtower. It’s out of sight of the other towers, and the ursu above will have to look directly down to see it. Only issue is if any guards patrol the exterior, there’s no chance they will miss it.
My white flame burns into the wall and in no time at all, it melts into a viscous puddle at my feet. I climb through and find myself in a storage room of tables, chairs and other rather unimportant goods. Of course, most are made of wood, so I need to put out the fire that started from the molten stone dripping into the room. Thankfully, this seems to be the basement level, so the lava doesn’t drip into some lower room.
Dust swathes all. Likely, nobody has been through here in years. Good, it means I’ll have nobody noticing the hole through the thick wall of stone from the inside.
It might have been a risk to just rush in like this without knowing what was on the other side, but I had no other plan. If I set off the alarm immediately, it would make my job much harder, but I still believe I can get Gerben out regardless of the attention on my head. As long as I can find him first.
That’s really where this might become difficult. This compound is huge. How will I find a single prisoner amongst thousands? As much as I know Leal wanted to come as well, she wouldn’t be able to wander around freely, anyway.
I make sure my outfit still hides me well enough and push against the typical heavy door. Locked. Fortunately, a tiny lick of flame into the keyhole destroys the lock, and I push into a wide, deserted hallway. Echoes of conversation come from my right, so I move in the opposite direction.
Soon, my path is blocked by another large door. Like the last, the mechanism inside the lock melts away and I squeeze through without opening it too far. I’m back outside, this time within the large walls.
An extensive structure sits in the central point between the stone walls. The dull, grey building lacks the usual features of normal ursu construction. No architectural uniqueness. No decorations. Just a simple — yet large — stone building with thin slit windows.
A wire fence circles the inside of the compound, separating the structure in the centre from the tall walls to the outside. I’ve seen an ursu’s strength. There’s no way the guards expect that small fence to hold them in, so what’s the point? There’s already a major wall to lock them in.
I go to move toward the obvious place where I’ll find a prisoner, but paste myself against the wall beside the door as a pair of footsteps come my way. A duo of ursu guards, each holding one of those enlarged guns, turn the corner and walk directly for the door I just came from.
I don’t dare to move as they walk within a few metres of me. Neither have noticed yet, but it will only take them observing the slight distortion on the stone to realise I’m here.
Wait… why do I feel anxious? Even if they find out I’m here, I could kill these two before they have the time to tell anyone else. Their weapons would do nothing to me. Well, except damage my outfit, which would be incredibly annoying more than anything.
One of them grabs at the handle and it immediately snaps off. Whoops, probably burnt a bit too much of the lock.
“The fuck?” the first stares down at the handle in his hand.
His partner groans. “Just put it back on and let the next person deal with it. My tongue is dry and I’m not wasting my time here.”
The first wedges the handle back in place — though at an odd angle — and follows his partner into the building protruding from the outer wall.
Huh, that is convenient. They don’t even question when a door is broken. Could I break my way inside the main prison and have the guards think they broke each door along the way? Doubtful. It’s clear no prisoners come near the wall.
There are too many eyes watching the wire fence, so I lower to the ground and crawl forward. If it works for the mermineae, it can work for me. Only it cuts my speed instead of increasing it as it does for them.
By the time I reach the wire fence, I can finally get a look at the treatment of the prisoners here. The first thing I notice is the absolute emaciation of the ursu here. They don’t have anywhere near the normal muscle mass. I can even see the necks of some instead of the usual mass of flesh and fur which make their shoulders.
Many have old, torn and blood-soaked clothes with accompanying wounds. The crack of a whip, not unlike that of Remus’ dangerous attacks, resounds through the muted compound followed only by pained shrieks. The silence itself is strange considering the number of ursu around.
I trace the source of the whip and find a row of ursu kneeling with bowed heads as a guard lashes them one at a time. A crowd stands uniformly, watching as the guard walks up and back, striking at each of the bleeding people cowering in the dirt.
The temptation to just burn everything to the ground grabs hold of me and won’t let go. Some things just deserve to be incinerated. But I have to hold myself back, for now. My priority is Gerben. Once I get him and Leal safe, I’ll come back.
I’m glad Leal can’t see this.
